Bee bearding — the art of giving your face over to a swarm of bees — is mainly done for fun these days.

Melanie Kempers dances for joy on the catwalk following her victory at the bee beard contest in Aylmer last year.

By:Katie DaubsStaff Reporter, Published on Sun Jul 18 2010

A hundred years ago, it was a good way to sell honey at a fair, but today bee bearding — the art of giving your face over to a swarm of bees — is mainly done for fun, or charity.

Insect facial hair has been known to pop up in California, Ohio, and even here in Ontario. The Star caught up with the “chambeeon” of last year’s contest in Aylmer to see what the buzz is about, and how many puns can be used in one story. Melanie Kempers, 29, of Guelph, is a beekeeper by trade, and a beebearder on her days off.

Q: How do bees get on your face?

A:Every colony has one queen, they all recognize her by smell. We put her in a small plastic cage and tie it around the neck, and we take the bees from her colony. We put them onto newspaper, and then pour them into a pair of hands just below the queen. They smell her and walk up towards her. Once they smell her, they huddle around her, that’s what creates the certain look.

Q: Can you make a custom beard?

A: You can definitely manipulate the bees. A lot of contestants put Vaseline along the edges so the bees can’t get above a certain level.

Q: Tell me about the day you woke up and decided to do this.

A: It wasn’t an epiphany, or anything like that. I’d seen my co-worker do it a few times before. I was always interested to see what it felt like so I decided to take on the challenge.

Q: How did you practice?

A: We did one trial run with a few bees that I knew were very nice and gentle. There were probably 15,000 to 20,000 bees.

Q: Do the bees like it?

A: Bees like to have a job. When they’re hanging on my face, they’re kind of restless, they can’t go out foraging.

Q: Do they forage on your face?

A: They start to look for moisture for sure, they get really hot. They’ll go to my lips and you can feel the little tongues getting moisture. They can also suck up the sweat.

Q: What does it feel like in general?

A: It’s kind of like monkeys in a barrel. The original bee holds onto the face and they hold on to each other. It’s kind of little claws, holding on to the skin, If I try to move my face, they hold on with all their might, it feels like a sunburn. The skin is tight.

Q: How many bees did you have on your face at the competition?

A: They guesstimate 10,000 bees a pound, and I had 3.7 pounds for 37,000.

Q: What was you inspiration?

A: I was Willie Nelson-themed, I had a bandana, and my hair in braids, and my catwalk song was “If you’ve got the money honey, I’ve got the time.”

Q: Would you ever trust other insects on your face?

A: Definitely not wasps, they’re not friendly enough. Bumblebees wouldn’t cluster. I don’t know how ants would respond to something like that, if you put honey on your face they might. It’s the honey bees natural tendency to go into that cluster.

Q: Any injuries?

A: In the practice round, I got stung on the lip. The bees were getting too hot, getting agitated. In the competition I got stung twice when we took the beard off.

Q: How do you take the beard off?

A: Basically you lean over top of the colony box that they live in, and jump. The jerking motion makes them all let go.

Q: What about the queen?

A: We take her off before. We don’t want to jerk her around when she’s in that cage.

Q: Is there any other way to get 37,000 bees off your face?

A: There are times when you can sweep bees. I don’t think I would want to sweep them off, they don’t like that motion. Once they’re into their home, they are back to normal again.

Q: Are all the contestants experienced with bees?

A: I would say so. I don’t think anyone who hasn’t worked with bees would want to jump in there.

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